Twelve Lords of Venus ALeaping
by Feonyx
Summary: Merry Christmas! The story is complete, all reviews are welcome, if not demanded, and it is Christmas Day, so go wassail or something. Gaudete!
1. Deck The Halls And Anything That Moves

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Twelve Lords of Venus A-Leaping

A Golden Sun Christmas Story

The village of Vale sat nestled in a valley towards the north of Angara. Some people might say that this would shelter them from the coldest winds and greatest storms of winter, which just goes to show that some people don't think long enough before they speak. Vale was in a cradle of the earth, and once snow fell it never left. Nearing the end of some of the strongest winters, the Mars Adepts of the village had to be called in to carve tunnels from house to house.

The light of the dawn sun had just crept over the valley walls, flooding Vale with brightness and forcing those who lived there to accept that is was indeed a new day.

Garet awoke reluctantly, hanging onto the warmth of sleep for as long as he could. Until he remembered what day it was, at which point someone watching his bed might have thought someone had cast Supernova Psynergy. The entire thing surged once and then Garet burst out of it in a flying leap, leaving the covers to settle back down from the rafters. He rocketed down the stairs in a whirl of clothes and flung open the front door, leaping forward into the snow, arms raised towards the sky.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS EVE!" he shouted at the crisp, blue sky. There was a moment of silence, except for a tree full of birds fleeing the apparent madman.

"Garet…" said a voice behind the open door, "you know how you have this thing about water?"

"Yes?" he responded, slowly, and started turning back towards the door.

"Then maybe you should avoid standing in a huge pile of snow right after _smacking a Mars Adept with a door!_" yelled Jenna, flinging the door shut and rising from her place against the wall.

"Are you okay?" he said, concerned and apologetic. Not that Jenna cared.

"_Beam!_" she shouted, and launched a concentrated stream of flames into the snow, which quickly started melting. Garet, who was well aware of the proverb involving scorned young women, turned and ran. Jenna followed, keeping up the blast as she ran, carving a line through the snow. They shot downhill past a few villagers, the small number who didn't mind waking before dawn, even in the cold months. 

"Those two…" said one of them.

"To be young again," said a woman, as wistfully as she could while hauling hot water from the spring. "Not a care in the world." Her husband looked up at her.

"Those were Garet and Jenna," he said, glad to know the trump card was in his hand this time.

"Really? The Defenders of Mars?"

"The same."

"His hair's shorter. Smoking, too."

They raced past Ivan, whose Whirlwind Psynergy had been very welcome in the village when the snow started falling and people didn't feel like toasting their houses with stray fireballs. He was staying -temporarily, of course; Hammet said he wanted him back home as soon as possible and Ivan was always agreeing he'd have to leave very soon, just not today- in the Aleph Inn, since hardly anyone else ever did. At least, he was supposed to be. At the moment he was clearing away the last of the snow that had blocked the door after someone closed it too hard the night before.

They would have raced past Mia as well, except that she had seen them coming and quickly restrung a string of holly in the village plaza. As the Mars Adepts ran through the snow Mia pulled on the end in her hands, bringing the line taut and up to knee level.

There were a few sounds of resigned protest, and then Garet was dropped with amazing speed face-first into the snow, followed quickly by Jenna. The last of her Beam struck the massive Psynergy Crystal at the plaza's centre, which glowed like magma for a moment before absorbing the blast.

"Decided to get a head start on decorating, huh?" said Garet thickly through the snow.

"You know me, Garet. Can't get enough Christmas," said Mia, brightly and with the kind of innocence that was totally fake while completely irrefutable at the same time. "Besides, the celebration is supposed to be all day, so we really should get ready early. More time to party."

"So I suppose you're the one who hung those mistletoe sprigs all over the place?" asked Jenna, already standing and trying to get the snow out of her hair before it melted.

"Why would I do that? It's poisonous."

"Well, don't look at me. I guess someone likes the look of it." asked Jenna. "Hey, those are Sol Wreaths! Where'd you get them?"

"Another unexpected talent of Picard's. Apparently they're the most important part of Lemurian winter celebrations," said Mia, picking up one of the ornaments. They were in the usual shape of a wreath of branches, but were mostly woven out of what seemed to be green, red, and silver metal. Equidistant around the circle were four crystals, which would be quite spectacular once they had been charged.

"Who was talking about me and my many talents?" asked Picard, stomping through the snow with another armload of decorations. 

"The girls, naturally," said Garet. "Ooh, garlands. Can I do this? I love doing this."

"Very well," said Picard, dropping the heap, but keeping one end of each garland in his hand. He pointed at the chimneys of the surrounding houses. "All of those."

"_Release!_" called Garet, using the unusual Psynergy to throw the loose ends of each garland out to the chimneys, where they tied themselves. "You know, sometimes I think all the Psynergy we used to save the world was invented for housekeeping. You ever think that?"

"I think you should stop philosophising and help me with the heavy stuff," said Picard, stomping off towards the village storehouse again. "There are about a dozen tables to set up, and someone apparently though the safest thing to do was carve the things out of anchorwood."

"Oh, stop that. It's Christmas Eve!"

"Don't I know it."

By the time Isaac awoke, having the usual Venus tendency (or perhaps skill) of being able to sleep through any number of natural or unnatural disasters, most of the rest of the village was already up and in the midst of what could really only be described as enjoyable chaos. 

The entire population of Vale was outside, totally oblivious to the cold. They had to be, since it was traditional for the feast and celebrations to take place outside, laughing (and singing, and drinking, eating, and dancing) in the face of the bitter cold. Of course, the fact that there were so many fires being laid and torches prepared that it looked like Mount Aleph had exploded again probably had something to do with making it bearable.

It was as Isaac was hanging upside down from the edge of the roof, trying to firmly attach the strings of decorations without losing his grip (which was mostly from his feet now) and breaking something, that the trees flew by.

Isaac watched for a moment before letting go in sheer disbelief. "Vine!" he called. An area of the dry, frozen thatch sprang to life again, quickly sprouting thick creepers that tied around his legs. The rest of him kept falling, and Isaac swung to a stop about three inches from the ice. "Thanks," he managed.

"No problem," said the Venus Djinni, peering over the edge of the roof. "Could you quit playing around and get up here? There's a bit of trouble with the other Djinn."

Eventually, holding back comment, Isaac managed to swing himself up high enough to grab the roof edge again. Vine's vines let go of his legs, and Isaac scrambled up onto the roof. No one else was there. He looked down at Vine.

"See?" she said.

"I don't see anyone."

"Exactly! I had all the little ones up here two minutes ago, I turned around to keep an eye on you, and voom! They're gone!" Vine shook her head, or at least made an attempt. Venus Djinn are about half head, so it tends to be difficult.

"Wait… little ones?" repeated Isaac.

"Yes. Iron, Chili, Fog, Blitz, just about all of them."

"Oh _no_!" exclaimed Isaac. In his mind he Set all the Venus Djinn he could, aligning them into a Psynergy conduit. With the power of a Lord (Bane and Quartz were still asleep somewhere, and couldn't be called on), he flipped backwards over the edge of the roof, landed feet first in the snow, and sprinted off toward the place he knew they would be.

Even though Isaac was right, he didn't find them first. That wonderful experience fell to Felix, who really didn't deserve it. He was trudging through the village with the sombre expression that said he was feeling quite upbeat. (When he was depressed, one glance could make people burst into tears.)

'Upbeat', however, is quite different from 'beat up', which is more or less what happened when he was standing on the cliff overlooking his old house. He was staring out reflectively at the village, thinking about everything that had finally led them home, when a voice broke the near-silence of the winds.

"ARR! It be a landlubber with not enough sense ter steer clear of our here territory! Mr Sleet! Fire at will!" screamed Hail. There was a pause.

"Will? You mean Felix?" said Sleet.

"Arr, I do, me hearty! Fire!"

"You know, this isn't exactly pirate territory. I mean, the river's frozen over. So's most of the pond," Sleet continued.

"Get into the spirit of it," said Fizz, and suddenly Felix's view was filled with whiteness. The next clear thought in his head came after the impact, when he was lying flat on his back at the bottom of the short cliff, staring into the face of a Mercury Djinni.

"Now what do ye mean by ent'rin' our waters uninvited, I muight ask?" demanded Hail.

"I'm not _in_ your waters! I don't want to know anything _about_ your waters! Now get off my chest!" snapped Felix. Sleet shook his head.

"Not a good plan. You should have just played along with her," said the Mercury Djinni.

"Now ye'll be payin'!" screamed Hail. "Prepare the-" but although he sometimes wondered, in the middle of bad nights, what was going to be prepared for him, what might be called a counterbattlecry filled the air before anything could happen to Felix.

"We must rise against them to save our valiant warrior!" shouted a voice in the nearest tree. "Sir Duo, Lady Ground, let us crush the battlements of these despicable rogues! At them!" And suddenly it looked as though it was past time for this year's Venus Djinni harvest as they rained out of the snow-covered trees.

"Why would knights be fighting pirates?" exclaimed Felix in confusion, but they took no heed. Just before the first assault began, a third force decided it was time to make things less orderly.

"Hold it right there!" said a familiar voice. "Put your weapons down and back away. This is the City Watch!" Felix raised himself onto his shoulders to see who was speaking.

"Flash, do you have any idea what you're getting yourself into?" he asked, too late. The Venus and Mercury Djinn looked at each other, then back to Flash and the Mars Djinn. Then the snowballs started to fly. On the side of the Mars Djinn, of course, was their power to melt enemy projectiles. On the other hand, the Mercury Djinn could keep up a barrage of snow for hours if they felt like it. And in the meantime, the Venus Djinn were more or less impervious to anything that could be (and therefore _was_) thrown at them.

Within minutes of the beginning of combat, fortresses had been built out of whatever was within reach. The snow had been quickly crafted into a veritable palace by the Mercury Djinn, who had -with considerable smugness- also added turrets, a moat, and were currently working on a catapult.

Hail was sprinting around on the battlements, shouting "Arr, ye be thinkin' we're mere pirates! Well, we'll be showing ye a thing or two about land war as well! Fire!"

"No quarter!" shouted Duo in reply, heralding another assault from the Venus Djinn. "Dame Quartz, lead the charge!" And from the stony blockade that was serving them as a castle, a band of Djinn marched on their foes, hurling snow with the efficiency of catapults with their tails.

"Let's see just how noble you are on the battlefield," said Excel, stepping to the front of the Mars Djinn. He was armed with a massive icicle, which he lowered into a sort of jousting position.

"How on Wayard are you holding that?" asked Felix, but he was ignored. Flint had located an icicle of his own, and was preparing to charge. They were just starting at each other when a thunderous voice echoed across the battlefield.

"What the heck do you think you're doing?!" demanded Isaac. The fighters skidded to a stop. Snowballs propelled by Psynergy halted in mid air. "_Quake_!" The Mercury Djinn's ice fortress collapsed in a cloud of snow. The Mars Djinn started to laugh, until there came a cry of "_Spire_!" and a stalactite flew into the tree behind them, causing an avalanche of snow to fall from the laden branches.

The only untouched force left were the Venus Djinn, who rejoiced in victory for about half a second before a pair of stern figures appeared before them, towering about twenty feet and casting a shadow as black as night.

"If I may repeat myself," said Isaac, arms crossed. "What the heck do you think you're doing?"

"Duo, don't you know better than this?" said Felix, in exactly the same sort of immovable stance.

"We're sorry," Duo muttered.

"And Ground, I'd expect better from you!" continued Isaac.

"It won't happen again…" said Ground, sheepishly.

"Haven't we taught you _anything_?" said Felix. "Everyone knows you only go into a full assault when the enemy is off their guard!" And with that he and Isaac spun around, launching a pair of snowballs at high speed toward the Mercury and Mars Djinn, who had gathered into one big group.

"You… you…" spluttered Corona, snow melting and sliding off her as she shook with rage.

"Brilliant tacticians?" suggested Isaac, packing another snowball.

"Masterful leaders?" offered Felix. The Djinn of Mars and Mercury looked at each other, considered the eternal opposites that they embodied. On the other hand, they were facing a pair of sneaky little Venus Adepts who had just teamed up against them.

They looked back at Isaac and Felix, who were aiming their next shots.

"RUSH 'EM!" yelled Chili and Fog, which was really all the encouragement the others needed.

In the village plaza, Picard paused in mid hammer. He looked at Jenna, weighted down with masses of ornamentation. "Did you just hear an explosion?"

And in another place…

"Are we ready?"

"Just a few more, hold on. Okay. Let's get to it."

[Notes] And so we have the first part of my contribution to the Golden Sun Christmas fic crowd. Two more chapters are to be expected, I think. A few warning, having seen the reactions these things got: the Official Approved Relationships for all my Golden Sun fics are Isaac 'n' Mia and Garet 'n' Jenna. And yes, they will be featured in this, so try to keep complaints to a minimum on that front. Beyond that, all reviews are welcome, so go to it.


	2. Jingle Bell Riot

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[Notes] That took long enough. Chapter three will be up in the next day or two, and it should be the best of all (it was actually where this all started). Beyond that, there isn't much to say, except that in case anyone is confused, all the new Djinn here are from Lost Age (I can't, of course, guarantee the names). You probably knew that anyway. And by the way, the Mimic was mine; Vilya just beat me to posting. So, read, hopefully enjoy, and above all (including reading) **review**! At the very least, tell me how to make it better.

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Twelve Lords of Venus A-Leaping

Chapter Two Of A Golden Sun Christmas Story

"This just isn't working," said Jenna, staring at the strangely festive thing that was probably Picard. He had managed to get onto the roof without spilling the box of decorations, she gave him that. On the other hand, the way he had immediately slipped off the roof and into a snowdrift had been less elegant. The box had followed him quite quickly.

"Where's Sheba?" asked the probably-Picard. "She's better at this sort of thing."

"How should I know? Besides, Garet's missing too."

"Which is much more important," said Picard, sounding quite amused. "I think he and Mia went to check out that weird sound."

"It wasn't all that weird," said Jenna, giving in and helping Picard disentangle himself. "It sounded… just… like… Cannon. Oh no. Where are your Djinn?"

Picard concentrated for a moment. "They're up by the frozen waterfall. Have been for a while."

"Like… more or less the same direction as that sound that was so much like an explosion?" For a moment, Picard and Jenna stared at each other. Then they moved as one toward the cliff stairs, Picard still trailing ornaments. "We have to go stop the village from bursting into flames. Get those tables out here, will you?"

"Now?"

"Go for it."

Once the small fires that _had_ started were quickly doused, no one had been permanently hurt in the clash, and most of the Adepts were left with a few minutes of peace.

"We should get down there and help with the food," said Garet, but Isaac grabbed the back of his tunic to keep the Mars Adept from going any further.

"Oh no you don't," said Isaac. "The last time you cooked, a Djinn was born. As helpful as Chili is, I think we can do without hordes of Mars Djinn running around. Is there something less likely to cause spontaneous-elemental-being-creation that we could do?"

"I don't know. Now that more people are up, the last decorations are practically -scratch that, these are Adepts, they _are_ flying up, and all the things with food and tables are being handled," said Picard.

"So what _do_ we do?" asked Mia.

"Something we haven't done in a long time, I think," said Felix, and the others looked at him. "Relax, celebrate, and enjoy the fact that we're alive."

Even from high above, the Adepts could tell there was something happening in the village plaza when they got back. Music had started up from somewhere, and most of the villagers -those not involved in heavy lifting at the moment- had formed a circle. In the middle, a couple of what Isaac found himself thinking of as 'kids' -even though they were only a couple of years younger than himself- were dancing enthusiastically.

"Hey, that's Geoff and Hilde," said Garet.

"Those two? Wouldn't have expected that," said Jenna. Mia and Picard were completely baffled.

"They've been flirting for about a decade," said Isaac, grinning. "Neither one ever seemed to notice that the other was interested. Completely over their heads, somehow. I guess one of them clued in." Picard, who had started to shake about four seconds after Isaac started speaking, burst out laughing.

"What?" asked all the others, but that just seemed to send him deeper into fits of laughter.

Eventually they calmed him down, and had no sooner reached the bottom of the cliff than Abraham, who had been unfortunate enough to think that volunteering to do all the baking for the celebration would be 'fun', ran up and pleaded for help.

"If more baking involved infernos, I might actually want to learn how. Come on, Garet, we get to save Christmas. Well, part of it," said Jenna, grabbing Garet and walking away with Abraham. "How flameproof is your kitchen? Never mind, we'll do it outside."

"Okay, I give up," said Isaac. "What were you laughing about?"

"The fact that you could have been talking about those two," replied Picard, nodding at the direction Garet and Jenna had gone. Isaac nodded and chuckled. "Or yourself, for that matter."

"Shut up," Isaac suggested, trying to avoid letting Mia see his face.

"He's got a point," said Flint from the top of Isaac's head.

"You too," Isaac added, pointing at the Djinni. But somewhere in the back of his mind his subconscious was lurking, and it always thought all the things Isaac didn't want to. It told him quite clearly, too.

__

She'll have to leave eventually, it said. _You know that_. _This isn't her home_. 

Are you going to make me repeat myself again?

__

I'm just trying to point out that reality of the situation.

This isn't a time for reality. Christmas is about fantasy.

__

Which is no doubt why you're talking to a voice in your head that's supposed to be you anyway.

"I'm freezing," said Mia, shivering. "It's so windy here. Even Imil wasn't usually this cold."

"Well, there won't be any food for a while, and the stars go up at sunset, so why not join the others?" suggested Felix, jerking his head at the crowd. "Music and dancing sounds like a good way to stay warm to me."

"Yeah, yeah," said Isaac, rushing Felix off. "You're waiting for us to leave so you can go talk to Rica without anyone noticing."

"Sounds good to me. Go. Go!" said Picard, waving Isaac and Mia off toward the other villagers. "Kids these days." Felix nodded for a moment, then looked at Picard in exasperation.

"How old _are_ you?"

"Never really bothered to count," Picard replied after a moment.

And suddenly Isaac found himself standing beside Mia at the edge of a twisting and twirling crowd of celebrating villagers. He took a couple of deep breaths, then focused for a moment, trying to gather the courage that all Venus Adepts were supposed to have.

Isaac turned to Mia. "Do you wa-AAAH!" he yelped as Mia grabbed him by the shoulders and dragged him into the dance. In the safety of his head, Isaac sang a few rounds of the Hallelujah chorus.

__

It won't work forever. 

But maybe for long enough, Isaac thought, and he surrendered to the dance.

"So what's the usual thing with presents here?" asked Picard, leaning against a fence and watching the dance with a sort of amused and gratified look.

"I thought you got rid of them so I could go and…" Felix trailed off.

"What? No. I just wanted to get to annoy you on a more personal level," said Picard. "You _do_ do the thing with lighting all the Wreathes at the same time, right?"

"I can't remember a time when we've had enough Sol Wreathes to do anything like a tradition. Of course, I forgot a lot after the storm, and for three years there really wasn't much to say about Christmas…" Felix trailed off again, but Picard was smart enough to notice the difference. This wasn't stopping himself before he mentioned something that could be called (at least by non-Lemurians) embarrassing, this was the sound of someone walking down Memory Lane and getting mugged.

"Maybe- Felix, duck!" said Picard, effortlessly performing the difficult task of cutting himself off.

"What?" Felix muttered. "Why?" Then he vanished under a massive pile of snow.

"It works, me hearties!" exulted Hail. "Load the next shot!" Felix emerged from the new drift in time to see the large snow-contraption the Djinn had constructed at the edge of the cliff, along with some impressive mechanics (in the form of stacked logs that fell apart properly) to turn the arms into launching devices. At the moment they were loading a snowman.

"Fog, really, no more. And Hail, if one more piratical word escapes your mouth there will be-" there was a sound like _thunk_ and the snowman was airborne "-oh, very well." Picard raised his arms. "_Catch_." A Psynergy hand appeared in midair and snatched the snowman, which stopped. "_Force_." Another Psynergy hand appeared, turning into a fist and crashing through the first hand, launching the snowman back at the sort of unsafe speed usually associated with Jupiter Adepts.

"Arr?" growled Hail uncertainly. There was a snowy explosion on the cliff top that went by completely unnoticed by the villagers. Picard studied the devastation, found it good, and then was immediately diverted by the smell of lunch emerging from several houses.

"Is that Imil chili?" he muttered, hopefully.

"Nope, just me," said the Mars Djinni at his feet. "But I think they'll be serving that at dinner. Nice shot, by the way."

"Anything warm sounds good to me," said Felix, trying to brush off the snow before it melted, and mostly failing. "Why do they keep going after me?"

"I don't know. Venus and Mercury aren't even opposing elements," said Picard. And then a flaming shape shot into the sky and exploded like a firework, raining sparks on the villagers. They turned to the circle of tables. Jenna was standing on top of the nearest one, her arms stretched wide to encompass the laden tables.

"Lunch is served," she declared, and barely managed to get off the table in time. In the rush, no one noticed the strange motions at the top of the cliff.

"And now?"

"Wait a few minutes. Then we really kick it in."

When lunch was over, the entire population of Vale nonchalantly excused themselves and headed home to get the presents out from wherever they had been hidden. Isaac and Garet found themselves sprinting, since their homes were at the top and back of Vale.

"So, how's it going with Mia?" asked Garet, energetic enough to run at full speed and still keep up a conversation. Isaac looked at his friend questioningly, but eventually relented.

"Just fine."

"You know she's going to leave eventually, right? In the new year, I'll bet." Isaac said nothing. "So, know how you're going to keep her here?"

Isaac was surprised, but realised that he wasn't exactly subtle in the way he acted. "I guess it's pretty simple. I need to convince her that I love her." They ran in silence for a bit.

"You know, I might not be the brightest of the group, and I might be totally lost with Jenna, but I can tell you this: she _knows_ you love her, Isaac. What you need to do is convince her that she needs to stay. That's harder. Vale isn't her home." Isaac veered off to the right and dashed through the front door, while Garet charged on, kicking up a cloud of snow.

After retrieving the gifts, Isaac waited outside Garet's house. There seemed to be some activity inside; figures kept running past the windows. Eventually the door burst open, and a large wrapped box shot past, running on four legs. Garet emerged just after it, but couldn't move nearly as fast in the deep snow.

"Aaron is going to _pay_ for this!" he growled.

"What the heck was that?" asked Isaac, who had jumped aside to avoid the thing.

"The little punk gift-wrapped a Mimic!" Hearing no response, he looked at Isaac, who was sprawled back in the snow, laughing too hard to draw breath or make sound. "Be serious, Isaac. This thing could cause trouble!"

"Oh, come on," said Isaac, pulling himself up. "It's Christmas Eve."

"That's why I'm worried."

"You're starting to sound like Picard."

But when they returned to the plaza, Garet's demeanour would have seemed more likely on Jupiter Adept- considering their power to see the future. At the chaos that lay before them, Isaac was at a loss for words. Garet wasn't quite so lucky.

"What the hell is going on?!" he blurted.

It was like a festive riot. Mostly dancing, though somewhat competitive or downright aggressive, but a small food fight had also erupted in the northwest corner, and a couple of Adepts were running around throwing attack Psynergy at each other. As they ran past, Isaac heard "Insult my soup, will you?" "It wasn't an insult! You said it was a hundred-year-old delicacy!" "And you said that was what it tasted like! _Flare_!" "AAAGH!"

"That is so not in the spirit of the season," said Isaac, shaking his head. His friend ignored him.

Garet took a couple of steps forward, then hesitated before dashing over to the top of a tree that reached up past the cliff's edge. He started to climb. Isaac ran over and grabbed his friend's thick tunic.

"What are you doing?" he demanded. Garet paused.

"I have no idea."

"Okay, what were you _going_ to do?"

"I think I was going to climb this tree and shout that I… Never mind. That's weird."

"Yeah," said Isaac. "Something is definitely… oh, _no_," he gasped, a figure in the crowd catching his eye. Isaac dashed down the stairs, muttering "Why me why me why _me_?" Garet watched him in confusion until the gift on legs shot past at high speed. He rushed after it.

"Come on, mom, get down," said Isaac. "Mom, really, stop dancing and get off the table. Ow!" This last exclamation was due to the way a random kick in the Highland dance Dora was doing had clipped him along the ear. "Where did you get those socks, anyway? I thought I hid those."

"Hey, Felix," said Jenna. "Dora found your-"

"Shutup," he hissed, quietly. "Picard, duck." The Lemurian did so, and a rogue fireball sailed over him. He straightened up and sighed.

"I knew it. Balance Day."

"What?" asked Felix, on the lookout for more random attacks.

"Let's get away from the chaos for a moment, shall we?" suggested Picard. He gathered the others and made a dash for safety. When they were out of range of the shouts and wayward Psynergy, he continued. "Look, Christmas is a great day, right?" The others nodded, as though someone had asked them if the ocean was damp. "Well, Lemurians believe that everything has to balance out. If something bad happens, something good has to happen, somewhere or when else. So if there's a whole good day-"

"Then it has to be balanced out by a bad day," said Jenna, sighing.

"In short, yes. Usually the day before," Picard added.

"So you think it's actually happening? That's a… bit…" Garet trailed off as he saw the Mimic dash past again, hit a tree, shake it head clear, and keep on charging. He ran after it with a shout, and Isaac followed.

"I think that goes in the 'evidence' pile," said Mia.

"Where's Ivan? I haven't seen him all day," said Jenna.

"Where's Sheba?" said Felix, in the voice of one throwing another question onto the pile. He paused and looked at his sister. She looked at him.

"No," they said as one.

"I wonder which pile that would go in," said Picard, thoughtfully. Then a snowdrift jumped on him. A moment or two later it burst apart, revealing the Mercury Adept looking very not amused. "All right, which one of you was that?"

"Not me," said Mia, but Picard wasn't listening to her. He was vengefully scanning the snow around them, searching for something.

"Hail?" he asked, in a deathly tone. Nothing happened. Apparently, to his view, something twitched, because Picard then leapt to his right, as through he was tackling something. He rose again a moment later, clutching something victoriously. Brushing it off, Picard found himself not holding the Mercury Djinni he expected, but a carrot.

"What?" And then a nearby stick stood on its end, twigs grasping the carrot. Holding on firmly, it then fell over again and started wriggling away under the snow, like a bad wood carving of a worm.

"That's just so far from right," said Mia, drifting somewhere between shocked silence and just plain shocked. The arm emerged from below again, stabbed the carrot point down, and started gathering snow. The Adepts watched, without even twitching, as it rolled two large snowballs. These were stacked, and into the upper one it placed the carrot and two stones. The arm stabbed an end of itself into the lower ball, grabbed another stick, and attached it to the other side.

"Did we just watch a snowman put itself together?" said Jenna, like she was trying to decide whether or not to be sick. It was just snow and stones, but there was a sort of organic quality to the process that defied description, and Jenna didn't like it any more than she would have wanted to watch a person put themselves together.

"Right," said Felix. "Jenna, Mia, you two go tell the elders that something weird is going on. Picard, we're following that thing." Already the snowman was moving away at a surprising speed, up the slopes of Vale. They followed. Jenna and Mia started back toward the chaos.

"I think it's wearing out!" shouted Garet as he ran alongside Isaac after the wrapped monster. They had chased it up past Kraden's house, over a couple of bridges, and back down to the plaza. Currently it was skirting the edge of the celebration quite quickly, coming back around toward the cliff.

"Keep it from going left!" called Isaac. Garet moved to block its escape, and Isaac flung Clay Spires at it. The Mimic dodged the stalactites and, seeing no other solution, barrelled straight on into the cliff face. What surprised Isaac wasn't that his plan had worked, it was the way the thing had vanished into the snow and apparently kept going. There was now a hole left where it had struck.

"Cliff caves!" said Garet, slapping his forehead. "Let's hunt that thing down before it causes any more havoc." He ventured into the shadow. Isaac followed, but was surprised to find that the light faded and then quickly grew brighter again as he entered the cave.

"What?" said Garet up ahead. Isaac caught up with him, and really hoped he misunderstood what he saw.


	3. Feliz Navidad, Whatever The Hell That Me...

****

Twelve Lords of Venus A-Leaping

Chapter Three Of A Golden Sun Christmas Story

"I'm open to explanations," said Isaac. "Please?" His attitude could easily be understood, considering what he saw in the back of the cave. There were candles lit, glowing with a purple flame that nevertheless cast light as pale as the sun on the walls. Ivan and Sheba were kneeling on what looked like a blanket, as though they had been crawling around a moment earlier. Now they were frozen, staring at Isaac.

Ivan took a breath. "It's a game from Kalay called Twis-" he began, but Sheba cut him off.

"Ivan, just tell them," she said, looking apologetically at Isaac and Garet.

"Tell us what, exactly?" asked Garet, with the tone Isaac had learned meant he didn't really want an answer. Ivan knew it too, and stared in disbelief for a moment before letting out a single laugh.

"No, Garet, nothing like that," Ivan said, sighing. He crawled further aside, and in the light Isaac and Garet saw that it wasn't quite a blanket after all.

"It looks sort of like a map," said Garet. He angled his head to try to see the shape better. "Vale?"

"And what are those?" Isaac got down on his knees and looked closely at the tiny purple lights scattered across the map. They were like ghosts- transparent, but still there, and in the shapes of the villagers. In fact, Isaac saw one that looked like himself, kneeling and staring at the ground.

"This has something to do with the chaos out there, doesn't it?" accused Garet. Ivan and Sheba exchanged guilty looks.

"We may have-" Sheba began.

"-miscalculated," Ivan finished, with a worried grin. "I guess we should have considered the feedback-"

"-spread them out more-" continued Sheba.

"-though all told it's hardly a failure," said Ivan.

"Where's it _going_?" asked Picard for about the sixth time.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," replied Felix yet again.

"Want to go for seven?"

"We're almost at the Sanctum, Picard. It's a long way to roll."

"Just trying to keep alert," the Lemurian replied. The sun was on its way to setting and the snow had started falling again, with a biting cold wind thrown into the deal. And still the snowman was moving, purposefully and ruthlessly. That was how it seemed to Picard, though there was no reason why he should think so. Snow isn't considered one of the more emotional types of precipitation.

"Is it getting taller?"

"What's hardly a failure?" said Isaac, poking the shape of himself and watching it poke the ground.

"Call it a Christmas gift," said Sheba. "The courage to do what you really want to, say what you really mean. Jupiter is, after all, the element of the mind," said Sheba. "It's easy to influence someone to do what they want."

"Influence?" repeated Garet.

"Not so much influence. Speaking to their minds, encouraging them," said Ivan.

"I thought you had to be close for that," said Isaac, now searching for the tiny purple Mia.

"Ordinarily yes, but you know how much Djinn can boost our powers. And they're small enough to go unnoticed, especially when they're hiding. Even the leaves of a plant can work," said Ivan, who was over the discovery and shifting into bragging mode. It was a good plan, Garet had to admit.

"You're the ones who hung those mistletoe bunches everywhere!" he realised. "Last night you were trying to clear the snow away so that you could get back into the inn, but it couldn't have taken you that long-"

"Unless I was busy setting this up while everyone was asleep. Good work, Garet," said Ivan.

"Patronise me one more time and I'm going to do something unseasonal to you, Ivan."

"Leave him alone, Garet," Isaac said, standing up. "I do owe you a swift kick to the head, though." He started back towards the entrance to the cave.

"You're just going to leave them?" said Garet, not moving.

"Not my place to judge other people's gift choices," said Isaac, and kept walking. But somewhere inside his head he was back onto the Hallelujah thing, dancing as a plan came together.

"Taller?" repeated Felix.

"Yeah," said Picard, pulling his cloak closer around himself as the wind howled and slashed ice at them again. "Like the snow it's… walking on, I guess… is sticking to it. Making it bigger."

"Don't give it ideas, thanks," said Felix, grinning at Picard. They reached the sanctum plateau, just before the path to Mount Aleph began. The snowman slowed its pace, then stopped.

"You think the cold got to it?" suggested Picard.

"A snowman?" replied Felix. Nothing more needed to be said. 

It turned around to face them. Felix stared at the mouthless face, wondering why he felt as though it was grinning mirthlessly at them. The fading light of the sun broke through the dark clouds, glinted strangely for a moment off an eye, and suddenly he understood.

"Those are Psynergy Stones!" exclaimed Felix. "It's gone sentient! In fact, with all that raw power…"

"It's like those nightmare monsters, isn't it? The ones that used to be animals?" asked Picard. "Balance Day strikes again. How long before blood is drawn, do you think?"

"Stop tempting fate, Picard." Then the snowman did something strange. Its stick arms reached up and pulled its head off. Then, holding on carefully, it leapt forward onto the beginning of the steep slope. The lower ball started rolling, getting bigger very quickly, while the arms kept its head safe and able to see as clearly as possible in the snowstorm that was growing.

"You just know that can't be good. Hey, it's heading for the plaza! If it hits the Psynergy Stone…" Felix looked to Picard, and found that he wasn't listening. The Lemurian was staring at the ground, apparently considering what to do.

"_Ice Shear_!" he called at last, and blades of ice stabbed up from the ground. With all his considerable strength, Picard struck one of these with his palm, and it snapped off cleanly. He did it again, caught the second, and threw it in front of Felix. "We'll never catch up any other way."

"I'm still working on what this way is," said Felix, confused, but Picard moved instead of telling him. He leapt onto the massive shard and pushed off the ground with one foot. The smooth ice slid easily on the snow, and Picard started moving quickly, if uncontrollably, after the rolling creature.

Shaking his head, Felix stepped onto his own shard and pushed off, already bracing for the inevitable impact.

"Anything happen while we were away?" asked Garet, approaching Jenna and Mia.

"Things have started to calm down a bit," Mia said, waving an arm at the very slightly subdued party. No one was attacking anyone any more, at least, and Dora had stopped dancing on the table. Isaac was mostly silent as he got some more food and sat with the others.

_Da da da dada da dah… Yeah, that's good. And then that, yes…_ said his subconscious, critically.

Am I hallucinating? You actually like it?

_Sure I do. You just have to get the timing right. Make it spontaneous and you'll manage it._

Just waiting for her to say one thing now, and it'll be perfect.

"Oh, brilliant plan!" shouted Felix, flying over a ridge, ricocheting off a tree and continuing on, spinning as he went. "Yes, let's remove what traction we still have, just in case there's a chance that we were going to live to see the dawn!"

"If you would just keep your eye on where you were going," said Picard, going airborne as he shot over a drift, "you wouldn't have these problems."

"If I would stop listening to you, I wouldn't have _any_ problems!" said Felix, scraping against a large rock.

"I'm the best friend you've ever had, Felix. I keep you from listening to yourself. There it is!" Picard bent over, getting into a crouch on the ice board to pick up speed as they caught up with the snowman. One of its arms was now using snow from the body, which was getting to be huge, to make the head bigger as well.

"What, exactly, do we do now that we've caught up with it?" asked Felix, crouching like Picard but with an added death grip on the edges and a look of suppressed terror in his eyes.

"I do solutions, not plans," Picard shot back. "I think we try to stop it."

"Oh good, perhaps we should try to dazzle it in a match of wits? Develop a logical and moral argument as to why it shouldn't crush any of the villagAAAAAAH!" Felix had struck a small, deeply set rock head on, causing his board to work along the same principles as a catapult and launch him forward at the speed of fear just before it shattered. 

"I suppose tackling it isn't a bad idea," Picard admitted, watching bemusedly.

And now Isaac was waiting. He didn't speak much as the sun went down, even as some of the villagers started lighting Sol Wreathes. Four of them, an Adept of each element, would take hold of one of the shining rings and charge it with Psynergy. An emerald would flare with Venus power, the Mars sought out the ruby, Jupiter was held in an amethyst, and the Mercury gem was a sapphire. Then gold sparks would begin to appear inside the spiralled metal, floating outward into an aura like the very sun.

Isaac hadn't said anything because he didn't want to miss his chance. Mia, despite living in Imil and being a Mercury Adept, wasn't one for cold, and was occasionally shivering. Knowing that he was making his plan that much harder, Isaac moved closer, trying to act as a windbreak for her.

"I hope that chili's gonna be ready soon," said Garet. "Powers of Mercury indeed- it's flipping inhospitable, that's what it is." For a moment, as words flashed in his mind, Isaac wondered if the Venus Spirit was helping him.

"Stop complaining, Garet," he said, feeling like he was reading a script.

"I don't blame him," said Mia, and Isaac's heart leapt with hope and fear. "It _is_ really cold in this valley." Knowing it was now or never, Isaac stood up and began to sing.

"_It's true the world can be cold_

Sorrow will seek those whose hearts are alone

But for those who have love

It all falls away

Even when push comes to shove

Your soul will dance through each day…"

Mia was staring at him with what Isaac prayed at a fundamental level was awe, or amazement, or something like that. Garet was silencing the people around them. Inside the cave, Ivan and Sheba looked at each other and said "Didn't expect that." Outside, Isaac went on.

"_Peace is on the wings of a dove_

But no wings have ever caught

The beauty of love

Always when you're far apart

Your world has begun to unroll

Love is that music in your heart

And the boldness in your soul…"

Jenna, who had wandered off to yell at the chili-makers a bit -to warm up, if nothing else- entered the plaza again and heard a familiar voice filling the air. A voice she had joked many times she never wanted to hear singing.

Isaac was now standing on the table, singing in a voice that was not like anything quite so much as night wind and starlight. Jenna found herself thinking this and shook her head. Very carefully, because every moment that passed more villagers stopped what they were doing and listened to the song, she checked to make sure he was definitely singing to Mia. She was sitting there, captivated so closely that she didn't seem to notice anyone else around her.

Now assured, Jenna got in a little closer so that she could make out the words.

"_There's no such thing as a romantic fool_

They're the only ones who have it right

When the heart shows the way

You know you must follow

As its song guides you all through the night…"

"Picard!" shouted Felix, holding onto parts of the snowman with the same zeal that he had on the ice board. "We don't have much time! Think of something!" 

"Oh, very well," he said. "This is going to be messy. _Ice Slide_!" Blades of ice materialised from Psynergy and slashed their way through the massive snowman. Other than passing through and leaving slight scars, the attack had no effect except convincing the thing to turn around and cause some mayhem. 

The thing stopped rolling, dropped its head onto its body, and picked Felix off it like seaweed. It flung him aside and as it looked at Picard its Psynergy Stone eyes flared red with malevolence.

"Oh, you want to dance with me, do ya?" said Picard, abrasively. He reached for his great sword and realised that he never carried it on him inside the village. "Fine. We'll do this the soft way. _Deluge_!" A flood of water exploded from Picard's hands, striking the snowman straight on and rushing around it. The Psynergy Stones flashed, and suddenly it was encased in a thick cloud of frosty fog. When it cleared, the thing was armored in massive plates of ice.

"Smooth," said Felix, struggling to his feet. "Get to the other villagers, I'll keep it busy." He staggered a bit and Picard shook his head despairingly.

"Felix, if you try to sacrifice yourself one more bloody time I'll kill you myself. I can handle 'frosty' here for a while; _you_ go get help."

"Okay, okay! I'm going. Don't die." Felix had to run a depressingly short distance through the snowy night to reach the plaza, now that they had chased the monster so far back down the valley of Vale. When he did, he was rather surprised by what he saw. The villagers had mostly formed a ring, in which he could see two figures. One, with blue hair and a thick white cloak, could only have been Mia. The other, when he got close enough, was Isaac. Singing, of all things. It almost seemed ridiculous to Felix after the ordeal he was going through, but then he heard the words. 

"_Peace is on the wings of a dove_

But what wings have ever brought

The blessing of love

For those who are so far apart

Your words are in the other's heart

I should have known it from the start

Love isn't fire, it is art

A harmony in two bright parts

That dream of only one…"

There was silence among the villagers as those last few lines were sung and faded into the dark. Picard ran up beside Felix. "I thought you were getting help!"

"I didn't want to interrupt," said Felix, smiling as he watched them. Reality slapped him upside the head. "Besides, I thought you said you could hold it!"

"I didn't say where," said Picard. "And every time I try to soak it, it freezes the blast in midair. And I think it's about to interrupt _for_ you." The snowman lurched to the edge of the cliff. Isaac, done singing, stepped toward Mia. She moved to him, and a whistling sound pierced the air. Isaac looked down at his shoulder. There was a carrot stuck in him, and blood was trickling down his chest.

He looked up and saw the monstrous snowman, now without a nose -which had been undersized for the behemoth anyway. It opened a slash in its head and let out a cold, predatory roar, then clawed up a pile of snow and hurled it into the crowd.

"Take cover!" shouted Isaac. "Everyone into the…" A look Picard didn't quite understand crossed Isaac's face for a moment. "Into the cliff caves," he finished. He reached up and wrenched the root from his shoulder. Reflexively, Mia made a few motions with her hands and cast Ply on the bloody wound, which sealed quickly.

"Got something against love, huh, punk?" said Picard, the wrath of a mariner high in him again. "Let's go." And he ran at the thing. It slapped him aside and leapt, crashing down into the plaza.

Wind howled around Isaac, and slicing snow. He had either just done the most wonderful or stupidest thing in his life to date. He wasn't sure what would happen next with Mia, or anything else. He wasn't sure of anything, except that a frozen monster had just attacked his friends, and it had to be stopped.

It was always easy when things were clear.

Ivan and Sheba had emerged, there were Garet and Jenna, Picard and Felix were on their way, and a moment later Mia was back beside him -_Good place to be_, thought his subconscious. The villagers were heading in to safety; they weren't experienced enough to be much more than targets out here.

"Here it comes," said Sheba unnecessarily, as she usually did when she was scared. The massive thing couldn't have been stealthy unless it lay down and pretended to be a hill. It hurled another tiny blizzard at them, and the Adepts scattered to avoid it.

"What do we do?" asked Jenna, rolling up from the ground in a crouch.

"We'll need some time. You guys hold it," said Isaac to Felix, beckoning to the others and dashing to the side, a plan forming.

"So what do we do?" repeated Jenna.

"Pow Pow Picard, just like Jupiter Lighthouse," said Felix. Jenna grinned and Sheba raised her staff. Picard dashed toward the monster and around it tauntingly.

"_Unleash Fog!_" called Picard, striking the frozen monster with one of his Mercury Djinn and wrapping it in thick cloud. Inside, the snowman looked around, trying to see its annoying attacker. A shape darted past. The thing pounced forward, out of the fog, and found itself staring a Mars Adept in the face.

Jenna raised a hand. "_Dragon Crunch!_" The snowman roared as the flaming Psynergy struck it, burning away part of its ice armor and face. As it stumbled back, Picard -who had had time to Set his Djinni again- rushed up and struck again with Fog.

Sheba was ready for the next part, her attack, and barely heard the words from behind her. If she had, she would have wondered why someone would say: "May I be forgiven. _Unleash Flint!_" No time for that, the monster was right where she wanted it. 

"_Storm Ray!_" Lightning fell upon the snowman, superheating the ice and cracking it, as well as releasing a cloud of steam. This time, however, it kept its concentration, and saw the small girl who had just dared to strike at it.

With an inhuman cry -which would really only be normal for it- the snowman reached out with a branch arm and slashed. Sheba fell, and it moved closer, slashing again.

"Oh no, _Sheba_!" cried Felix. "Picard, Jenna, keep it busy!" He rushed over to the place where Sheba had fallen and called up Cure Psynergy.

"You do have a plan, right?" said Garet to Isaac. The Venus Adept grinned like a madman, and held up in his right hand a Sol Wreath.

"Are you serious?" asked Ivan, who wanted to get out there and help.

A manic grin still on his face, Isaac held up in his left hand a fragment of the Psynergy Stone that he had just cut off.

"He's serious," Garet reported. "Grab on." The other three Adepts reached out and each placed a hand on the ring, which was as smooth and cold as ice in this weather. The crystals charged with power, and Isaac stuck the fragment into the middle without ceremony. It flared threateningly.

"_Dynamite Ice!_" called Picard, blasting the snowman with frozen shrapnel.

"_Unleash Shine!_" Jenna's Mars Djinni blasted the snowman, but it finally caught on and simply started packing fresh snow onto itself. Jenna was about to make another strike, but she was caught in the leg by an ice ball and fell back, unable to stand.

"Picard, get out of there!" warned Mia. Reluctant and uncertain, he did, and a strange golden star flew past him as he backed away. Hurled with all the force Isaac could muster, it struck a point where Shine had fractured the frozen armor and stuck in the snow of the creature's body.

The snow monster looked down at the bright thing, confused.

It glowed brighter, sending forth rays of light.

It then exploded in the strangest way most of them had seen yet, which was saying something. Every part of the Wreath burst away from every other part, leaving only a golden point of light. This grew, flaring outward like a nova, then winked back to infinitesimal size and beyond.

The frozen monster was gone. Two tiny crystals lay on the wet grass. Picard walked over and picked them up. He realised he remembered them. A snowman, pausing in midair and then rocketing back toward the Djinn who had fired it.

"Sorry," he muttered, and pocketed them.

Jenna paused at Garet's front door. A moment later it flew open as she expected, and he leapt out, arms raised exultantly toward the blue sky.

"IT'S CHRISTMAS DAY!" he announced to the world. Something appeared to cross his mind, and hesitantly Garet turned around. Jenna stood there, untouched by the door but covered by the snow it had kicked up.

"Merry Christmas?" he suggested. Jenna raised a hand and it glowed with Psynergy. Garet ran.

Smiling as they ran past, Beam blazing, Isaac let the curtain cover the window and turned around, pulling his dressing gown closer and sipping the hot drink he held. Mia walked in from another room, looking tired but satisfied.

"How's Sheba?" asked Isaac, softly.

"All patched up. She'll probably be awake in another hour or so," Mia replied.

"Healers," said Isaac, and put his arm around her.

"We're amazing, aren't we?"

"Very much so. Not many people would stay up all night seeing to the injured after a long cold day and a near-disaster."

"It wasn't all that cold," said Mia, smiling at him. Isaac blushed a bit. "But still, with Ivan and Sheba you really couldn't be held responsible." Isaac thought about this, and remembered how they had come running during those few moments when he couldn't recall where Mia was. If she had gone to get them…

"You knew all along," he said, in a sort of amused accusing voice.

"Well, everyone knows now," said Mia. "Even without them in there, I understand it was pretty clear what had been happening. You should have seen the chaos. They barely even noticed when the Mimic found its… way… back to the entrance." 

"What?" asked Isaac, confused.

Mia looked at him, and it was her turn to be accusatory. "You chased it in there!" Isaac said nothing. "You knew too. And Ivan is too smart to touch someone's mind if they know what's going on. You were never influenced." There was some more silence, except for Garet and Jenna's distant laughter.

"So, are you heading back to Imil soon?" asked Isaac. There, he had said it.

"Yeah. Probably after New Year's." Isaac was stunned. This wasn't how it was supposed to go. "Of course," Mia went on, stepping closer, "wherever I go, no matter what…" She kissed him on the cheek. "I'll always be back." Isaac smiled, and tears appeared in his eyes. "Oh, stop it."

He drew Mia close and kissed her. "Merry Christmas."

****

[Notes] First, before I forget again, a response to poetry_freak: you make a good point, but I was writing Isaac/Mia Garet/Jenna type stuff before I ever saw an FF.net GS fic. And I _can't_ remove your review. No, not because it's immoral, because you signed it. Next, I say again that all reviews are welcome, especially to my old fics, and anyone who's waiting with growing annoyance (you know who you are), I will be getting back to the other stuff (Tolbi) soon.

As a quick credit, Isaac's song is excerpted from "Phoenixwings" by Will Gough. That is, as far I know, it, so Merry Christmas to everyone, and a Happy New Year. Gaudete!


End file.
